The iPad Pro

There were some reports that a new iPad Pro would arrive this fall, however as reports of the new 11-inch iPad Air started to solidify, it became apparent to us that most of these rumours may have been confusing this new mid-range iPad for an iPad Pro, since of course the two devices now look virtually identical.

Still, while we didn’t really expect an iPad Pro to be released so soon after the spring refresh, Apple did surprise us in one pretty significant way: the debut of the new A14 chip on the iPad Air — the first device to be announced with the new chip — now puts Apple’s mid-range iPad as the fastest device it has on the market, at least two generations above the 2020 iPad Pro. To be fair, the Pro model did receive a new, slightly upgraded A12Z chip this year, but it’s also still one that’s based on Apple’s 2018 A12 technology — the base version of which Apple’s new 8th-gen entry-level iPad even sports now.

We’ll have to wait for the benchmarks to see how much of a practical difference this makes in daily use, but it does suddenly feel really odd that Apple’s flagship iPad is now lagging behind. Much better mini-LED equipped 5G iPad Pros are said to be coming early next year, but this also now leaves us wondering if Apple will wait that long to add the A14 to its premium iPad lineup, but it’s also likely working on getting an A14X chip ready for the Pro models, which also looks like it will be shared with Apple’s first Apple Silicon Macs, and it wouldn’t be a big surprise if Apple offered up an upgraded A14X-equipped iPad Pro at a Mac event later this fall.